The bill aims to create a trillion-yen endowment over the next 10 years that the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency would dip into to provide long-term support to startups, other private-sector companies and universities.
The bill calls for allocating 300 billion yen — the first round of funding — in the draft supplementary budget for the fiscal year through this coming March. It includes 150 billion yen for the Ministry of Education and Science, 126 billion yen for the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and 24 billion yen for the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.
The government has previously stated that the fund would “seek to swiftly provide support totalling about 1 trillion yen.”
The government plans to submit the bill to the current Diet session, and JAXA is expected to begin accepting applications for funds in April.
JAXA’s support to companies often takes the form of advice as it has no system to provide significant amounts of funding. The bill is aimed at addressing projects that are difficult to commercialize and fail to woo investors.
JAXA will select recipients based on whether they can help nurture budding technologies that have the potential to play important roles in national strategies, including national security.
The Japanese government believes it is crucial to support companies involved in space development as elsewhere private sector players’ cooperation has become indispensable in the development of space technologies. In the United States, SpaceX and other emerging companies are making their presence felt, supported by NASA and other government agencies.
